In a slight decrease of 0.4 per cent on last year’s figures Reading borough has one of the country’s lowest percentages of children getting their top choice.

However the council’s education leaders welcomed the results in the face of a steep rise in the number of children aged under four in the town. Since 2001 there has been a 34 per cent increase in the number of 0- to 4-year-olds in the town.

With 75.32 per cent of youngsters being offered their first choice, Reading remains behind its neighbours in Wokingham and West Berkshire, who achieved 85 per cent and 90 per cent respectively.

Councillor John Ennis, Reading Borough Council’s education leader, believed the difference in figures was due to the challenges Reading faces that nearby authorities do not.

He said: “Those are small rural areas with settled communities with very little migration into the town centre. Places like Wokingham and West Berkshire often export their pupils into places like Reading. We are more akin to places like Portsmouth, Brighton or Derby.”

Cllr Ennis believed the transient and diverse population of Reading added to the challenge of placing children in a preferred and local school.

He added: “I am sure we could find what other places are doing but to be compared to small, settled communities is very difficult.”

In Reading, of the 2,233 children being placed into state schools for September 2015, 94.7 per cent were offered one of their four choices.

A total of 117 children were classed as “diverts” and were offered a place at a school not selected by parents, a slight drop in last year’s numbers.

In an effort to meet the growing need for school places the council has embarked on a £61m expansion programme to create 2,520 more primary places.